Man Skips Work For 24 Years, Finally Gets Fired

A man in India skipped out on work for a full 24 years and the government finally had enough of it, so they fired him. Yes, a guy by the name of A.K. Verma hadn’t shown up to work since December of 1990, and his superiors decided it was time to put their foot down, so they gave him a pink slip.

A.K. Verma was a senior executive engineer at the Central Public Works Department, according to USA Today. Apparently, he just didn’t feel like showing up for work so he didn’t.

Verma was described as being “on furlough,” but there was much more to it. In 1992, there was an inquiry ruled against him and it has undergone numerous delays and just plain inaction for the past 22 years.

“He went on seeking extension of leave, which was not sanctioned, and defied directions to report to work.”

After all that, Verma just finally got fired.

It actually took until 2007 for the formal proceedings to dismiss him to even begin. Even with that being put in motion, it took yet another seven years for a decision to be made to fire Verma from his position.

According to Reuters, the World Bank says that India’s labor laws are some of the most restrictive in the world. The way they are worded and put in place, it makes it very difficult to fire anyone for reasons other than criminal misconduct.

Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu was the one that officially put in place the order of dismissal for Verma. It was done to “streamline the functioning of CPWD (central public works department) and to ensure accountability.”

Over the past few decades, the bureaucracy of India has become widely known for its levels of absenteeism at work going up rapidly.

Employees are known to just arrive late to work and much more. It is known that many of the civil servants of the country take overly long lunches or even head out to the golf course to spend part of their breaks playing the game.

In 2012, a survey was done by a Political and Economic Risk consulting firm out of Hong Kong, and India did not get great marks. Their bureaucracy was actually rated as one of the worst among the major Asian countries.

One of the biggest problems has been in schools, as huge numbers of teachers fail to show up for their classrooms.

The man who skipped work for 24 years didn’t really need to worry about backlash because, as strict as they are with keeping jobs, the government isn’t very good at firing.